Also San Antonio definitely has Trader Joe’s. If she likes Trader food in general, “train” her to “cook” with it during summer. Trader is not cheap but many packages can be divided for 2 meals. It has good frozen section with some relatively healthy options. Definitely much cheaper than Uber eats 
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Thanks! Baby steps I guess 
No student has time and willingness to cook dinner. So it has to be something quick and easy. Like cucumbers with sourecream, or quick sandwich or in my daughter’s case a lot of dumplings and buritos from Trader 
. She doesn’t cook, she warms her food.
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Mine cooked her last two years. We got her a crock pot and an easy meal/ 5 ingredient cookbook and she became very skilled about cooking on Sundays and morphing her food throughout the week. She saved us quite a bundle when she moved off campus.
We gave her a monthly allowance that she managed and budgeted. She was also responsible for managing her utilities and ensuring rent was paid on time.
IMO it was good baby stepping to full adulting.
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Very good. My son and roomie when he started work - first time they needed to pay (month 2) didn’t.
We auto paid his college place.
He learned quick. But yours learned sooner.
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We covered the rent and utilities for the off campus apartment.
We gave our kid $200 a month…but that was in 2005-2007. I can’t imagine that would be enough now…prices on groceries have gone up. I would start with an amount you think will work…maybe $300 a month…and then adjust UP as needed.
All household items were split with roommates…trip to Costco at the start of the term. They had space to store.
We also gave both of our kids gift cards to the local grocery stores they used…every so often.
Both of our kids DID cook dinner. Enough for leftovers for a meal, and for lunch one day as well. They both had sufficient time to do so. One of the reasons for moving off campus was to have a kitchen and be able to cook meals.
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S23 lives off campus in a house with two other guys. We transfer rent money on the 1st and utility money on the 15th.
Everything else he puts on a credit card that we pay. He’s very frugal, and I don’t worry about him abusing the privilege. He eats in for most meals and actually cooks real food. He recently asked me for my panang chicken curry recipe!
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We pay our sons’ rents directly so they never see that money. As far as groceries, we give them $250 a month. They are pretty frugal and one of them LOVES to cook so it’s enough for them.
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My son is off campus, but doesn’t have rent. Just food. He cooks often, but eats out often too. He has dining dollars that are required to buy and he uses them on campus for lunch a couple times a week.
In the apartment, he cooks some nights, shares meals with roommates a couple times a week, and eats out at times.
We give him money so it works to about $80/week and that includes anything he wants to buy. I sent some things at the start of each year for toiletries, etc. And his roommates split bringing things for the kitchen (utensils, pans, etc). So $80/week should cover what he needs otherwise. It’s probably more than he needs, but it gives him some options.
Adding, that I gave him the money in August for the semester. He’s good with money and is doing fine with it.
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The easier way for us… With younger S, we had him added an an authorized user to my credit card. He was able to use it for the grocery store and Walmart. He wasn’t allowed to use it (nor did he even ask) at restaurants, fast food, etc. Sure, he could have been buying everyone beer at Walmart, but the charges seemed reasonable. I think it might have been roughly $50/week. I believe he also had a 5 or 7 meals/week plus some dining dollars meal plan.
Older S lived on campus for 3 years and even the last one, he had access to his frat’s kitchen/chef, so he didn’t spend much on food.
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It should be, my kids on campus meal plans were $3000 a semester, I don’t spend that much on groceries for my family.
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That was true for us too. We saved $4k/year on room and board once our D moved off campus.
But, I bet it’s very school/location dependent, and what a family is willing to tolerate for housing. So often I hear parents lamenting the cost of off campus housing only to hear that the kids are looking at the newest buildings with all the bells and whistles and that they don’t cook so do take out every night. At D’s school that combination would have been a lot more than staying on campus but is completely unnecessary.
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And depends on the rental market. If your kid is in a place where the only leases are 12 months- and your kid is there for 9 months and can’t find a subletter- you’re on the hook for the non-resident three months. Front door lock is broken- landlord says it will take three weeks to fix? You’re likely paying out of pocket for a locksmith to show up in an hour. Internet costs extra? And for most college students- kiss the deposit good-bye. Even if your kid is good at keeping the kitchen clean and in good operating order, there WILL be damage charges at the end of the lease.
Off-campus is not always as “cheap” as it seems!
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I believe the vast majority of college rentals are 12 months, the ones I know of that are 9 months actually cost the same as 9 months. Only one of my kids was able to sublet (Boston). A big benefit is if they stay at the same place year after year there is no moving/storage. Even paying $1000+ a month for a bedroom, it was still cheaper for my kids to live off campus, they all shopped and cooked (here at home we very rarely eat out or order in, I cook pretty much every night, so that’s what they’re used to).
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when my daughter wanted to move off campus, the only stipulation that I had was that the expense of the apartment (for 12 months) could not exceed what it would cost for her to live on campus. Even with sky high Boston real estate prices, she was able to find choices that met that budget. As far as food, I kind of arbitrarily told her I would give her $200 per month “allowance” for her to use on food or anything else, and if she found that wasn’t enough, we could adjust the amount. That amount ended up being fine, as she cooked the majority of her meals and dug into her own “fun money” funds (from summer job savings) for weekend meals out or the occasional doordash. I’d advise starting off with a lower amount than you might ultimately be willing to spend, as IMO, they will spend whatever you give, and they will also adjust their spending accordingly.
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Thanks everyone, appreciate learning what everyone else is doing.
My daughter had the school meal plan as part of her athletic scholarship even though she lived off campus. I think it was $1500/sem and she didn’t come close to using it. It was on a swipe card and she would be charged every time she entered the dining hall. There were a few other places around campus she could use the card (a deli, a pizza place, for smoothies, but she isn’t a coffee drinker). What she did use was the little grocery store on campus. She could use her swipe card and buy kitchen staples like spices and canned food, baking supplies, and they could also get a ‘take out’ container of food from the dining hall that didn’t cost as much as going into the dining hall. They could buy toilet paper and cleaning products. They could buy cases of canned goods. And still they couldn’t use it all up (usually her roommates also had a meal plan). They bought food and supplies for their boyfriends. They swiped others into the dining hall.
And when they graduated and moved out of the house, they left it fully stocked with supplies for the next group, their teammates, who were moving in (this house passed to new players every year).
TLDR: $1500/sem is too much! Daughter is a good cook and baker, but college kids don’t always have time to create meals, and there is a lot of eating out or delivery. They can learn ways to make that happen without every meal costing $30.
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You’re right! I thought no way was my kid’s meal plan that much, but I just looked it up. It’s well over $3000/semester for on-campus residents. The commuter plan my kid got was either $1000-1400/semester. I don’t remember which one. He took care of it, and his scholarships paid for most of it.
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Agree - but it is the what we feel is fair. Our one daughter is a great cook - she eats very clean food and does spend a fair amount on groceries. Just stating how we do it - and yes, it is a lot more vs what the majority on this thread are budgeting for their kids. This is a kid that is a D1 athlete, has a part time internship and a full time student - yet she still has time to cook and eats incredibly healthy. It is a priority for her and will be something she will have to take into consideration when she is out of college and working off her own earnings - and she has an understanding of her food costs and other other costs too. (queen of an excel sheet).
I don’t think I realized how crazy expensive they were until #3 wanted to go off campus sophomore year (the older ones went off campus junior years). Some schools average swipe cost is $18, so no off campus meal plans for my kids (for $18 you can get something better elsewhere).